12 January 2009

Return of "The Man In Black"

The BBC has revived the popular character "The Man in Black" for a new series of plays on BBC Radio 7.

Valentine Dyall played the original Man in Black for BBC radio in the horror series

Appointment With Fear between 1943 and 1955. Dyall played the mysterious narrator which bookended the programmes. In 1949 the character was given his own spin-off series, The Man In Black

.

Dyall would also play the part in a

Hammer film adaptation

of the series that same year, directed by Francis Searle. Many of Hammer's films during the late 1940s and early 1950s would be based on popular BBC radio serials or television programmes.

The character would be come out of retirement again in 1988 for four new radio series by the BBC under the title

Fear On 4, this time with Edward De Souza (Hammer's Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Vampire

) as the Man in Black.

The latest incarnation sees writer and actor Mark Gatiss as the narrator.

The Man In Black

returns weekly to BBC Radio 7 from 4th January 2009. Episodes are available via the BBC's Listen Again service for 7 days following broadcast.

For more information and to listen to episodes click

here

.

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